Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-10-13
MUCH, OR LITTLE
BY J. P. THATCHER

men In the village, weighing consid-
erably over eighteen stone.
Mentally and morally, he was one of
the smallest. He was skinfiint on
small scale.
He never made large ventures. The
turning of an honest penny gave him
no particular Joy; but if he could get
the better of neighbor, or Of travel.
er, in the way of deal, he was hap
py.
On the other hand, let him be over
reached In the way Of deal, or in the
way of any kind OF business, and he
was in agony.
One day Deacon Hibbard-a good
old farmer from the upper part of the
parish-cslled in at the tavern, and
asked Lotus If he could give him "a
bit of something to eat"
He impressed it upon Steven LOT
tus's mind that he didn't want a re-
gular dinner. A cup of weak tea, q
crust of stale bread. with very little
butter. That was all
And that was al Lotus gave him.
He drank the tea, eat the butter on
about half the bread, then arose and
went out into the taproom and asked
what was to pay.
Eighteen pence, deacon, is the price
for dinner
Now the good old deacon was by no
means q penurious man, nor was he in
any way grasping; but he was poor
man, and obliged to look after the
pennies if he would make both ends
meet at the end of the year.
But, Mr.. LOTUS, fairly gasped the
deacon, you don't call that dinner
which you served to me?'
Certainly / do, deacon. It's the
reg'lar dinner time, and l give you ali
you wanted. You might have had all
you asked for. Le' ne tell yer, I've
got jest one reglar rule--a dinners q
dinner, much or little; and I've got
my price--eighteen- pence. If you'd
been mind to, you might ave eat
ten times as much, an wouldn't "a
been only dinner
Suppose man should come along
that could eat a whole ox?' suggested
the deacon.
''Twould be just the same. AS /
told you afore, much or little, much or
little, dinners dinner
The deacon took out his well-worn
purse, and paid the sum; but he did
it reluctantly, and with very heavy
heart. 1t was not SO much the money,
as he said afterwards, but the thought
of the wrong put upon him.
Now 1t so happened that my friend
Abner jackson and myself we're sit
ting in the taproom at the time. Also,
there were a number Of others--all
friends smoking and chatting socia-
bly,.
Ten or fifteen minutes before the
deacon came ont from the dining
room, Abner and I had seen Dan
Bantam pass with load of wood, and
we knew he was taking it to DIR.
Daniels. a
Here was an opportunity to give
Lotus a, Roland for his Oliver.
Bantam had worked for me once, and
had once eaten at my table; but never
again.
He stood six feet in his stockings,
and was as lean and lank as fence
rail. He could eat more than any
other man ever heard Of.
followed Deacon Hibbard to the
door, and asked him to back and wait
while, at the same time whispering
to him that he should have an oppor-
tunity to give the landlord slight
return for his dinner charge.
We found Dan with his wood Of,
ready for a start homeward. We
asked him If he was hungry.
Hungry he repeated, regarding US
with simple wonder. Am | hungry,
when amt / hungry I'd like to git
filled up jest once; Ill be hanged if |
wouldn't
We then told him, il he would come
/ to the tavern, and order dinner and
eat it, we would pay the bill
Dan was nobody's fool. On the
way we gave him an inkling Of what
we really wanted. His dull gray eyes
fairly shone.
1t appeared that LOTUS had once
cheated him in paying for a load of
wood--had given him counterfeit
half-crown, and would not take il
back.
Poor Dan could not afford to risk a
suit at law, SO he had been obliged to
pocket the loss.
BY the time we had gone half the
distance to the tavern, he was
thoroughly instructed, and as eager
for the fray as man well could be.
Then we slipped on ahead, and left
him to come after.
We found the company in the tap
room as we had left it. The deacon
had sat down. and picked up an old
paper. The landlord was tumblinge
about, now here, now there, watching
for q customer.
BY and BY Dan Bantam drove his
horses into tho stable-yard, shook